Doing research for your topic is a matter of choosing relevant keywords or key terms that best represent the main concepts about your topic. It may be useful to consider narrowing or broadening keywords as you refine your search strategy.
Example
| Concept → | Other | Narrower | Broader | Related |
| resilience → | grit | "no excuses" | character | social environment |
| research → | inquiry | critique | information ; literature | bias ; authority ; evidence |
| education → | school | K-12 ; primary | learning | children ; culture |
Where do key terms or keywords like this come from?
How to find keywords?
Watch for and capture them when reading - especially from abstract and subject term fields
Use template below for your own search strategy.
| Concept → | Other | Narrower | Broader | Related |
What is your information environment? What counts as "literature?"
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There are many different types of literature in education. Consider the content types listed below in bold that are available to you through VIU's LibrarySearch.
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LibrarySearch Content Types: |
Dissertation/Thesis |
Magazine |
Postcard |
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Searching in ERIC definitely has its benefits, because you are only searching for literature that is focused in education. However, it may be necessary to filter by Publication Type to receive the results you need. ERIC Publication Types: Book/Product Reviews, Books, Collected Works (All), Collected Works - General, Collected Works - Proceedings, Collected Works - Serials, Computer Programs, Creative Works, Dissertations/Theses (All), Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations, Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses, Dissertations/Theses - Practicum Papers, ERIC Digests in Full Text, ERIC Publications, Guides (All), Guides - Classroom - Learner, Guides - Classroom - Teacher, Guides - General, Guides - Non-classroom, Historical Materials, Information Analyses, Journal Articles, Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials, Machine-Readable Data Files, Multilingual/Bilingual Materials, Non-print Media, Numerical/Quantitative Data, Opinion Papers, Reference Materials (All), Reference Materials - Bibliographies, Reference Materials - Directories/Catalogs, Reference Materials - General, Reference Materials - Geographic, Reference Materials - Vocabularies/Classifications, Reports (All), Reports - Descriptive, Reports - Evaluative, Reports - General, Reports - Research, Speeches/Meeting Papers, Tests/Questionnaires, Translations |
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Citation mining is a way of maximizing your search. By checking and following up on the citations listed in the works you're interested in, you can find more relevant results. Under each result in LibrarySearch, select "cited articles" or "cited by these articles" to learn more.
Example: (resilience OR grit) critique
Research is iterative → Find more based on what you have, and record your path
Consider keeping a research journal.
Include: Databases and sources, effective key words/descriptors and combinations, key journals and authors, ideas for follow up.
Save and name files consistently.
Strategies:
Make periodic backups.
e.g.: from local drive to cloud, or cloud to local.
Use a citation management tool.
Consider: Features or functionality that you will need.
Adapted from York University Libraries' Zotero vs Mendeley Comparison and from a comparison Venn diagram from UBC Libraries.
